According to the production notes (available in PDF on the website), the original concept by Ed Glaser was Videogame: The Movie! - like the Scary Movie series, only funny. It was written by Kevin Folliard. The truly great thing is that everyone involved in the movie has either worked on games or is a hardcore fan, so naturally the movie is Troperiffic. Plus, most of them are accomplished martial artists that raised the level of fight scenes in the movie. The incredibly low budget was worked around thanks to the extremely committed and versatile team.

So sit back, relax, and get ready for some cheesy video game laughs. Just Press Start.

Brick Joke: Subverted - Zack's refusal to participate in the the Jackomo card game Side Quest is itself a Running Gag, but when Zack & Lin-Ku reach Vile & promise to defeat him, Vile asks if they have several powerful weapons & pieces of armour. Zack then asks how they could get that stuff, and Vile responds with "You have to do very well...in the Jackamo card tournament."

Creator Cameo - Ed Glaser plays "Justin Bailey", Vile's employee, as well as the voice of the lair's self-destruct mechanism. Writer Kevin Folliard, in addition to voicing Lin-Ku, also has a brief appearance as "Jungle Jerry".

Hand Wave - When Zack tries to bring up the point that killing the current ruler of most of the world (evil or not) might send the world into a socioeconomic turmoil leaving it vulnerable to a dictator of equal or greater power, Sam and Lin-ku pretty much do this.

Mistaken for Gay - Zack, unaware of Sam being female, mistakes her early affection for this. Later, when Zack and Lin-Ku wait outside the third dungeon and Zack shares this, Lin-Ku ends up mistaking Zack as gay.

This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself - Subverted and played straight. Lin-ku pulls this when fighting Captain Psychodri- I mean G. Foreman. However, Zack and Sam have no problem letting the murderous ninja do the fighting for him. Played straight when Zack tries to intervene in the fight, but Sam stops him.

Took a Shortcut - The Shopkeeper continually shows up wherever the heroes go. Including a secret passage Sam discovers by blowing up a wall. It gets lampshaded.

Creator Cameo - Aside from the fact that writer Kevin Folliard plays the voice of Lin-Ku, director Ed Glaser appears as an employee of the Vile corporation, and later as the ultimate game designer, God.

Our Vampires Are Different: Vlad is clearly based on Castlevania's Dracula, has an apparent affinity to bats, and flat-out states that his moat is meant to keep out vampire hunters. But he has blue hair, lacks a mouth (maybe he talks telepathically?), refers to himself as a "dark lord of chaos" rather than a vampire, and can conjure lightning bolts out of nowhere. At this point, he seems more like a lich than a vamp.

Pay Evil unto Evil - Pretty much every good character, since being a video game hero usually entails killing the bad guys. In particular, Trenton Belfast refuses to consider making peace will evildoers, and Lin-Ku is downright bloodthirsty.

Platform Hell - Johnson has to go through a lot of it to get a certain library book.

Power Echoes - Vlad, whenever he wants to make an impression (or alternately, when he's really pissed off).

Put on a Bus - Lauren Ketch more or less vanished after season 1 until she reappeared near the end of season 3.

Too Kinky to Torture - Trenton gets blasted by chaos magic repeatedly during a raid to retrieve an oracle. He claims it "started to feel good after a while."

Unfortunate Names - Pay attention to Belfast's "screwed up family tree" in Symphony of the Trite.

Vice City - The City of Freedomsville which is visited for one episode. Lin-ku falls in love with the free-for-all nature that rules the place and chooses to stay behind to begin a life as a crime-boss. Until next day where he, to his disappointment, finds out that that killing off the other crime-bosses have caused the citizens to reclaim their city and turned it into a peaceful Utopia.

Xanatos Gambit - Vlad creates an Evil Knockoff of Zack to go and try and kill him. Seems a pretty straightforward and easily foiled plot, right? After a brief (and stupid) Spot the Impostor moment, Zack kills his double and that's that, right? Wrong. Remember one of the rituals to unlock one of the gates of Hell? "The hero that killed Vile must spill his own blood on the altar". Evil!Zack is still Zack, so no matter what the outcome was (Zack killing evil!Zack or Evil!Zack killing Zack), the ritual would be fulfilled.

Sequel Hook: Vile is transformed into a Jackomo card, and promptly takes over the world of the Jackomo, declaring his intent to use his new army to take over his own world... As soon as he finds a way to get back there.

The Other Darrin: Sam's original actress, Lauren Chambers has been replaced by Jennifer Zahn. They get around this by having Sam keep the helmet on.

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